Becoming Change-Makers | Generation Church Update

“Our vision is to be change-making followers of Jesus. Change-makers don’t sit and pray for change,they are actively involved in creating it.” – Jarret Hamilton

Most church planters set out to launch the perfect church. We want the perfect band, the perfect kid’s ministry, the perfect small groups, the perfect weekend services, etc. “We may not be where we want to be now, but we’ll spend all our money and time getting there!” What we seem to forget is that something imperfect can never create something perfect on its own. Charles Spurgeon said, “The day we find the perfect church, it becomes imperfect the moment we join it.”

Generation Church officially launched on February 1st of 2015. Launch day was insane! We had three full services in our little matchbox of a building. We currently have two services and will soon be moving to three services in the fall. If you measure a church’s success by numbers, then we’re pretty successful so far. Our average weekend attendance is around 450 people, including kids. We held our first Baptism service in May and baptized 30 people, which was amazing!

We are beginning the process of Missional Groups. This will be one of our biggest challenges. We believe our success will be found in how many people our Missional Groups are reaching. What we do on the weekend is important, but it’s not our only focus. We want our people to be the church and reach our community. We want our people to be disciples making disciples.

So, nothing to complain about right? Actually, there isn’t really much to complain about at this point. However, ministry is the business of people, and people are a mess. In our short existence as a church, we’ve had conflicts, awkward moments, goodbyes and even a few foxes in sheep’s clothing. It’s a slap in the face when someone tells us that Generation isn’t the church for them. However, we constantly remind ourselves that we aren’t trying to build the perfect church for everyone. God doesn’t intend for us to create a formula that just makes everyone happy. He calls us to reach people. How many people will begin to say yes to and follow Jesus because of our existence? That is how we will measure our success.

Here are some ways you can pray for us:

* What is our next move? We are already too big for our current building, plus the lease runs out in December. Pray for clarity and guidance for the next move.

Leaders – Pray that God will raise up the right leaders for the right position.

Current Leadership – It’s no surprise that a church plant is a lot of work. Pray for strength and guidance for the current leadership.

Thank you for your support. Journey Church will always be a special place for a lot of us here at Generation Church. It’s a privilege to be on mission together with you all.